5/30/06 - Into The North

Belfast, Northern Ireland
My first impression of Northern Ireland was that it really isn't very different at all from the Republic. Of course, there are a few obvious differences: the currency is the British Pound rather than the Euro, distances on street signs are in miles rather than kilometers (although it actually took me a little while to realize that), the lack of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants (coming from CT and then Ireland, I realized how nice this really is), and the accent is noticeably different from those found in the Republic - even Donegal - and also a bit tough to explain ('down' is pronounced somewhere between 'doyne' and 'dine'). But all in all, it definitely didn't *feel* like a different country.
Sure, the spectre of sectarianism still haunts Northern Ireland, but the aspect of it most visible to the average tourist are the murals painted by both sides, mostly on the ends of row houses. These murals, alternatively colorful & sombre, hopeful & defiant, are now among the prime tourist attractions in places like Derry & Belfast, and in many ways I think they act as a glossy, seemingly harmless veneer over what absolutely remains a very ugly, bigoted and petty conflict. 17 years after the fall Berlin Wall, a similar divider remains standing between the the Protestant Shankill neighbourhood and the Catholic Fall's Road neighborhood in order to keep violent elements in both neighborhoods from making forays into the other. 4 gates exist in the wall, all of which are shut in the evening (the latest at 10PM) and opened again in the morning, and only a few years ago, sections of the wall had to be heightened to keep rocks, firebombs, etc. from being tossed over. Just earlier this month, a 15 year-old boy was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Ballymena, Co. Antrim by 7 other teenagers, apparently for no reason other than the fact that he was Catholic.
I'm not going to claim my 6 days in Northern Ireland made me any sort of expert on the Troubles (especially since I didn't really have any contact with hard-line catholics or protestants, who generally assiduously avoid political discussions with outsiders), but I did speak at length with 3 different people with interesting insight into the conflict: Maria, a student from Paraguay I met through couchsurfing.com who had been teaching Spanish at two local schools, one protestant and one catholic; William, a taxi driver who gave me a tour of Shankill & Falls Rd and some interesting historical & political commentary; and Dyfe, a Moroccan staying in my hostel who had been in Belfast for several months taking English classes, and who originally stayed in a rough-and-tumble protestant neighborhood.
William the taxi driver estimated that 90% of the population of Belfast is sick of the conflict, and only 5% of the population ardently supports each side. Sectarianism is mostly limited to the undereducated and poorer sections of the population, and persists in - as well as is partially sanctioned by - the school system, which is for the most part still segregated. Integrated schools exist but aren't common, and in one Protestant school some of the students chided one of Maria's fellow teachers for wearing a green t-shirt. Interestingly, as part of a resume exercise, when she asked her students to list their nationality, the Catholic students responded almost uniformly with Irish, while the Protestant students used English or the UK.
'Protestant' and 'Catholic' are most commonly definitions of the two sides, but these are perfectly interchangeable with 'Loyalist'/'Nationalist' and 'Republican'/'Unionist'. However, Protestant and Catholic are the most historically significant terms, so they remain the dominant ones (and so they're the ones I'll use here), even though they no longer really reflect the tenor of the conflict (no one's fighting over the exact role of the pope in governing the church). The latter two pairs are actually much more accurate, since most of the hard-line sectarians are actually not religious, and except for acting as a rallying cry and/or source of identity, religion actually plays a very minor role in the conflict. The real fuss, or at least the main ideological divide, centers around the Northern Ireland's political status in relation to the Republic and the UK.
However, it's not really all about ideology. The various factions on both sides (the Real IRA and Continuity IRA on the Catholic side, and UVF, UFF, and UDA on the Protestant side) are little more than gangs, and are heavily involved in drugs, prostitution, and extortion. At this point in the game, the leaders of these gangs are at least as interested in preserving the status quo and making sure they get their share of the spoils as they are in advancing their respective ideological causes. There have been spells where the infighting between factions on the same side has been heavier than between the two sides. The power of the gangs is such that the police can really only do so much, and are often content to sit back and let them fight amongst themselves.
Finally, tensions are at there highest every July 12, when protestant organizations throughout Northern Ireland have parades (known as marches) in celebration of the victory of William of Orange (William III of England, also of 'Glorious Revolution' fame and affectionately known to adoring Protestants as King Billy) over the Catholic James II in the Battle of the Boyne, which essentially guaranteed that the English monarchy and hence government of Ireland would remain in Protestant hands. Amazingly, this battle happened in 1690, meaning that one of the main flash points of the conflict is a wound that has been forcibly held open for over 300 years (the Protestants having conveniently ignored the fact that a significant portion of William's army was composed of Dutch Catholics).
Belfast is definitely a rapidly changing and developing city, and one that has come a long way since the bleak times of the 70's and 80's - there's a lot of optimism in the air, which makes it easy to overlook the fact that the Troubles still exist. But I'm glad I spent enough time there to scratch the surface & see that a lot of ugliness still lingers (and is still being bred) just below that surface.

Daily Summary

• Weds, 5/24 - arrive Derry, N. Ireland
• Thurs, 5/25 - walk around the city walls of Derry (supposedly most intact in all of Europe), St. Columb's Cathedral, & the Catholic Bogside neighborhood (site of the Bloody Sunday violence during a civil rights march in Jan 1972)
• Fri, 5/26 - bus from Derry to Portrush, Co. Antrim. attempt & fail to hire a bike to ride (for insurance reasons, nowhere in or around Portrush rents bikes anymore) approx. 8 miles to see the Giant's Causeway, a rare rock formation on the Antrim Coast that is one of Ireland's more well-known natural tourist attractions.
• Sat, 5/27 - attempt & fail to hire a taxi to take me to see the Giant's Causeway (none available). decide to walk/hitchhike, and manage to catch a ride most of the way. the Causeway isn't nearly as massive as the pictures make it out to be (rather just one pier-type structure of hexagonal rocks, with a few other rare rock formations around) and mobbed with tourists. interesting, but as with most hyped-up tourist destinations, actually a bit dissapointing. walk/hitch back to Portrush, bus to Belfast. few pints at a few places in Belfast, including the Crown Liquor Saloon (apparently one of the most famous pubs in Ireland)
• Sun, 5/28 - walk around the campus & botanical gardens of Queen's University in S. Belfast
• Mon, 5/29 - Black Taxi tour around Belfast, including the shipyards where the Titanic was built, murals in Shankill and Falls Road, and the 'peace wall' dividing the two.
• Tues, 5/30 - flight from Belfast to Glasgow, Scotland

Brilliant Quote: "fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity" - graffiti scrawled on the 'peace wall' dividing Belfast

Reading

• Still working my way through David Copperfield

Photos

Next Stop: Glasgow, then the west coast of Scotland and on to the Highlands

5/24/06 - Changing Tack

Sligo Town, Co. Sligo, Ireland

First off, apologies for the delay in posting - I ran out of time in Dublin, then spent the past few days driving around the email-less wilds of Co. Donegal in my rented Nissan Micra (damn, i forgot to take a picture of the little thing). But that's not the only reason: while in Dublin, I found myself (after a few pints, of course) thinking about the blog, and a bit disappointed with the way it had unfolded thus far. It seemed a bit like i was just rehashing cliches or confirming classic stereotypes without really providing much original insight, not to mention the fact it also felt a bit forced and/or constrained.

so this entry is entitled 'changing tack' for a few reasons: first, travel-wise: going from the buzzing metropolis that is Dublin, to the vast and barren but beautiful stretches of bog, mountians, and coastline of Co. Donegal, but also because i'm going to try a new tactic when it comes to posting. it's going to be a little less structured and more free-form (although i'll still try to organize it somewhat into categories of thoughts). i'll keep the daily summary, but with less hum-drum details. Just because a day is scant on details, however, you shouldn't assume i just sat in my hotel room sucking my thumb; rather, that just means nothing super-noteworthy happened. generally, one of the tenets of my traveling philosophy involves arriving in a place, then simply wandering around on foot, maybe ducking into a bar or restaraurant if i'm thirsty/hungry/tired/frustrated/etc. sometimes this leads to interesting encounters or revelations, but more often than not hoofing it around just makes my feet hurt; however, i don't think you can get a better feel for a place & soak as much in in a short amount of time in any other way.

Daily Summary

• Mon, 5/15 - bus from Kilkenny to Cork. met some of the guys from Liquid Funding (company based in Dublin that I did a fair amount of business with while at Ellington) for a ... ahem ... "liquid" night out. the only thing that made tuesday less painful was the fact that it was a monday night, so not all that much going on.
• Tues, 5/16 - soaked up Irish culture: saw Trinity College & the Book of Kells, then a guided tour of the Irish National Museum.
• Weds, 5/17 - took in Irish history: walking tour relating to the 1916 Easter Rising, which laid the first concrete foundations for Irish independence. then tour of Kilmainham jail, where multiple irish patriots & thousands of ordinary citizens, were imprisoned until 1924. back out with the Liquid guys for the Champions League Final (Arsenal v. Barcelona). after the game, chatted up some irish girl whose boyfriend happened to be in the bathroom, but ended up hanging out with the two of them for a while. he was convinced i looked like thierry henry (i even posed for the obligatory cell phone snapshots), and she made it her goal to pimp me out to every irish girl i fancied, so a pretty good time...
• Thurs, 5/18 - standard Dublin tourist stuff: Guinness Storehouse. some traditional irish music in Temple Bar.
• Fri, 5/19 - bus to Sligo to pick up the car. walked around megolithic tombs at Carrowmore (3500-4500 BC), then hiked to the to of Knocknarea Mountain to see Queen Mab's Grave: a huge stone cairn at the top of the mountain that can be seen from miles around. drove to Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal.
• Sat, 5/20 - drove/hiked to tip of St. John's Point, a narrow peninsula that juts out into Donegal Bay. then drove/hiked to Slieve League, the highest sea cliffs in Europe (600+ meters, pretty impressive). stopped in Glencolumbkille to watch Munster hang on to beat Biarritz in the Heineken Cup rugby final. drove to Malinbeg.
• Sun, 5/21 - drove through Glenesh Pass, then hiked across a massive beach to caves near Maghera (luckily there right around low tide so everything was accessible). drove to Dunlewy & Glenveagh Nat'l Park, hiked around Lough Dunlewy through a beautiful forest known as the Poisoned Glen. drove to Dunfanaghy.
• Mon, 5/22 - drove around Horn Head, hiked around the sand dunes outside of Dunfanaghy, drove around Rosguill Peninsula & up the Inishowen Peninsula to Malin Head (northernmost point in Ireland). stopped in a pub for a pint or two and had to withstand having the piss taken out of me by a local toothless farmer i could only half understand (the fact that i was a 'wee lad' whose mother apparently didn't feed him enough came up multiple times)... but all in good fun, and ended up having a decent (if occasionally incomprehensible) chat with a local fisherman, first about football, then the state of the irish fishing industry.
• Tues, 5/23 - saw a recreated Irish Famine exhibit in the Isle of Doagh, then drove back to Donegal Town, stopping on the way to play 9 holes at Cresslough "Golf Course" (actually just a par-3 in moderate condition, but for EUR 6, I wasn't expecting much - my swing actually felt good & I played as well as can be expected with a rented 8-iron, wedge & putter...
• Weds, 5/24 - returned car to Sligo, bus to Londonderry (aka Derry City)
  

Observations on Ireland:

• weather - the day i left CT, where it was 75 & sunny, i checked the forecast for ireland: 52, cloudy, rain. my first second thoughts, & i hadn't even boarded the plane. obviously you don't come to ireland for a tan (as the barman pointed out last night), but out of 24 days so far, i've had 2 nice ones, 5 decent (i.e. predominantly dry) ones , and the rest have been mediocre at best. however, i did hear on the radio yesterday that this may is shaping up to be the wettest ever on record. just my luck... but for the sake of everyone who has to put up with it year-round, i'm glad it's not this bad all the time.
• sports - the irish are mad for their native sports heroes. as noted above, Munster (one of the four regions of ireland, comprising the southwestern counties) played Biarritz for the Heinekin Cup (the pan-european club championship) in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday. The whole country came out in support of Munster, with a ton of people going to the game and at least 30,000 more watching on the streets of Limerick. During the build-up to the game, it dominated newspaper, tv & radio coverage, and even though i was in Limerick at the very beginning of this month (3 weeks before the final), flags, posters & jerseys were everywhere. I was also in Cork when Roy Keane, a native of Cork and widely considered as the greatest Irish soccer player in a long time - if not ever, played his testimonial game for Manchester United. Although widely respected as a soccer player, he's absolutely revered here. I have the feeling that the Irish are so proud of their great literary tradition (and rightly so) only because they haven't had all that many truly renowned athletes. Joyce, Wilde, Yeats, Heaney, etc. have somewhat filled that empty space in national pride.

Skirting Death for the First Time:
between driving stick, having to remember to stay on the left side of the road, and negotiating Co. Donegal's ridiculously windy (and often one-lane) roads, shortly after renting the car i would have put my chances of surviving the weekend at about 50%. but luckily got used to everything pretty quickly, and managed to avoid ending up dead in a ditch...

The Cult of Snus:

it's surprisingly common, it's a great way of making friends & influencing people, it's... snus??? for the uninitiated among you, snus is a type of mild chewing tobacco from scandanavia (equivalent roughly to nicotine gum). despite the fact that it's quite common there, and almost completely non-carcinogenic, it's legal only in sweden and norway (conspiracy by the major tobacco companies, anyone?). i was first introduced to it while working in germany, & then came across it again a few years later, and ordered a few tins on the internet. I meant to order a few more tins to bring with me to europe (it goes great with a beer, because unlike american chewing tobacco, you don't have to spit and the flavor is actually quite pleasant, almost salty), but the delivery time is 3-4 weeks, and it was one of the many things i meant to do but never got around to. i didn't really give it much further thought until i was walking around Cork one day and kicked myself for not having ordered any before leaving the states; you can imagine my surprise when that very night, as i was talking to an english guy and his girlfriend in a local bar, he pulled a tin from his back pocket and offered me a bit. he was as surprised that i knew what it was as i was that he had some, and he ended up giving me the remainder of his tin, since he had plenty back at his hotel. later on, in Dublin, just when i had gone through most of what was left, i had set the tin on the table next to my beer, and the guy sitting behind me (a norwegian, it turned out) tapped me on the elbow and asked me to 'change' one of mine for one of his of a different brand. once again, we got to talking, and he offered me the rest of his tin. so 2 weeks plus with a steady supply of snus, and now i'm half-expecting to be offered more any minute...

What I Miss:

• not having to ration q-tips. back home, i could go through a box of 500 in a few months, now a travel pack of 30 has to last me a reasonable amount of time...
• the daily show. i didn't realize this until last night, when the barman at the pub i was in in Donegal Town turned it on. whether you like his politics or not, Jon Stewart is both really f*cking funny AND really f*cking smart...

Random Thoughts:

• 15 months is a long time, but also not that long. there have been some places that i've wanted to stay longer (Dublin, specifically), but i've felt the pressure to keep moving in order to see more places. the past 3 weeks have flown by, and i've barely scratched the surface of Ireland. at some point, i think i'm going to want to hang out somewhere for an extended period of time, which means i'm either going to have to drop some places from my tentative itinerary, or extend the trip. i'm loathe to do either, but i'll cross that bridge if and when i come to it.

Reading:

• finished American Pastoral by Philip Roth (thought-provoking & highly recommended)
• finished The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (quick & entertaining science fiction / fantasy as a break from 'real' literature)
• started David Copperfield by Dickens

Photos

5/14/06 - The Celtic Tiger Roars On

Kilkenny City, Ireland

As much as I've written paeans to the pastoral landscapes & quaint drinking atmosphere in Ireland, after a few weeks here you start to get the feeling that these romanticized stereotypes of Ireland are gradually fading into the past. Much has been made of the vaunted 'Celtic Tiger' economy, and rightly so -- in the past decade, Ireland has seen tremendous economic expansion, and the big kitty hasn't stopped purring yet. Although GDP growth isn't quite at the 8+% levels seen in the second half of the 1990's, most current estimates put it around a healthy 5%. One of the most visible aspects of this growth is the fact that - much like in the US - the Irish property market is booming, having been fueled by both the economic growth of the past decade and relatively low interest rates (standard mortgages here are currently just south of 5%).

This means that in all of the cities I've been to, you can't look around without having the horizon interrupted by giant construction cranes; even in smaller towns like Tralee & Kinsale, large new complexes are being built, and beautiful older row houses are being gutted and refurbished. Road work is everywhere, and even cycling down quiet country lanes, cement trucks rumble by on the way to the construction sites that dot the countryside. After pubs, the most common buildings here seem to be real estate agents (although for some reason, the "real" is dropped, meaning they're actually just called "estate agents"), who advertise new and existing homes, apartments, and commercial buildings, both in Ireland and vacation hotspots like Spain and the south of France. In Killarney, one of the locals told me he had become a "multimillionare" practically overnight, simply because he had inherited a modest house smack in the middle of town from his parents, and it was now worth a significant amount - and I think he was more surprised at his newfound wealth than I was.

So promoting the classic view of Ireland as a lush landscape with cosy little pubs and friendly, folksy people while ignoring the tremendous rate of change felt throughout the country would be misrepresenting modern Ireland. And I haven't even got to Dublin yet...

Daily Summary

• Thurs, 5/11 - bus from Cork to Kinsale. My first really beautiful day in Ireland (not a cloud in the sky, at least until a thick fog rolled in off the ocean in the early evening). Walked around town, across the Bandon River and out to James Fort overlooking the harbor, then relaxed on a small beach for a few hours in the afternoon. In the evening, hiked out to Charles Fort, a very well-preserved 16th century star fort overlooking the other side of the harbor.
• Fri, 5/12 - woke up with a vicious cold, meaning I was blowing my nose pretty much nonstop all day. bus from Kinsale to Kilkenny via Cork. toured Kilkenny Castle. few pints in a local pub.
• Sat, 5/13 - rented a bike, cycled south to Kells Priory (extensive ruins of a 14th century monastery), then to the nearby Kilree cemetary & round tower (basically a 30m high watch tower). watched Liverpool play West Ham in the English FA cup final. saw a hurling game at the local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) field here in Kilkenny - more on that below.
• Sun, 5/14 - in another fit of piety, decided to go to church at St. Canice's Cathedral (actually went last Sunday but forgot to include it in my original blog post - it's there now), the seat of a Church of Ireland (i.e. anglican) diocese. far more painless than my experience last week. rode the bike to Inishtioge, a small village on the river Nore.

Overall Highlight

Watching Liverpool beat West Ham in one of the best soccer games I've ever seen. The Reds were down 2-0, battled back to 2-2 on two fantastic goals, went down 3-2 on a fluke goal, then levelled at 3-3 in stoppage time on an amazing goal by Stephen Gerrard before winning on penalty kicks. The bar I was watching the game at was going absolutely nuts the whole time.

Runner-up: lounging on the beach outside Kinsale. After a week & a half of off-and-on clouds & rain, it was nice to soak up some uninterupted sunshine. even managed to get a little sunburnt...

Random Observations:

• If hurling isn't the roughest sport on the planet, it's certainly near the top of the list. It's tough to explain without seeing it (and having seen it, I'm still far from having a good grasp), but imagine a cross between rugby, lacrosse, and field hockey where 15 players a side (completely without pads except optional helmets & facemasks) whack a hard rubberized ball roughly the size of a baseball - and themselves - with large curved wooden sticks. It's pretty damn intense. I have some pictures, but unfortunately the internet cafe i'm at right now doesn't have a facility to hook up my digital camera...

Photos

Next Stop: Dublin

5/10/06 - My Liver Hates Ireland

Cork City, Ireland

If you're trying to stay off the sauce, Ireland probably shouldn't be near the top of your list of travel destinations. I've been here for 9 days now, and not a day's passed when I haven't had at least a pint or two. It's not that I've been 'on the lash' the whole time, but pubs are such an integral part of the social fabric here that I feel like I'd be missing something if I didn't indugle a bit (at least that's my excuse...) And it's not exactly difficult to find a pub to pop into - most of the time, walking more than 2 consecutive blocks without passing one is actually a challenge. But it's different here than in the States - there's a heavier emphasis on conversation & general congeniality, which means a simple hello often kicks off a long discussion. Before or after their shifts or on breaks, the bartenders often just slide around to the other side of the bar. In Dingle, the guy I rented my room from recommended Dick Mack's pub in the late afternoon for a 'bit of madness'; it turns out there were just a handful of locals (ages ranging from 20 to probably 55 or 60) unwinding after a day of work while the bartender's kids ran around, but the banter back and forth was fantastic. There's a gaelic word for all this: the 'craic', which is tough to define but it's basically the atmosphere of a pub where everyone's having a good time. The Irish are proud of their friendliness and character (and rightly so), and plenty comfortable with their willingness to knock back a few in the interest of a good time.
And yet despite - or maybe also because of - the pub life here, the Irish government has actively taken some measures to rein in some of its vices: there's no smoking in pubs (or most public places for that matter), hard alcohol is almost never free-poured (meaning that although whiskey is slightly cheaper than beer, you get exactly 1 shot, no more, no less) and without a government issued age card, you may have a hard time buying alcohol in stores (I haven't yet tried, but according to an Aussie girl I was talking to, apparently drivers' licenses and/or passports sometimes aren't even accepted if you don't look over 18). Also, in addition to the Irish beers you would expect (Guinness, Murphy's, etc.), Bud, Coors Light & MGD are surprisingly common, and Harp is almost non-existant. Phew, all that made me a little thirsty...

Daily Summary:

• Fri, 5/5 - bus from Dingle to Killarney.
• Sat, 5/6 - hiked to & around Ross Island in Killarney National Park, and got caught in a pretty steady downpour. Few pints at a few different local drinking holes.
• Sun, 5/7 - in a fit of piety, decided to go to Sunday morning services at the local Methodist church (figured i'd start with something familiar and then work my way up to irish catholicism). when the minister's opening prayer lasted at least 10 minutes, i knew i was in for a long morning. 8 hymns (all sung - actually more like mumbled - to completion without skipping so much as a single verse) and 90+ minutes later, the service finally concluded. rented a bike, rode to & around Muckross Like & Torc Falls in Killarney National Park. after 3 nights of staying in hostels, was a bit under budget; when that happens, there's only one thing to do: splurge. had a fantastic dinner at Treyvaud's on High St. in Killarney: smoked salmon appetizer, followed by a brace of rabbit. on my way back to the hostel when I passed one of the locals I had met the previous night, who twisted my arm to come along for a few pints & hear a local blues band. Good stuff.
• Mon, 5/8 - bus from Killarney to Cork, after deciding to scrap the Beara peninsula: getting there from Killarney wasn't very convenient via public transport, & bus service around the peninsula is a bit scarce anyway. Walked around, saw the extremely ornate St. Finbarre's Cathedral, seat of the protestant Church of Ireland's Diocese of Cork. A few pints in the hostel bar, then off to An Brog bar for what we thought would be some live rock. Turns out we just caught the tail-end of the Irish equivalent of quizzo. Still entertaining, and more pints, meaning:
• Tues, 5/9 - woke up feeling like someone was squeezing my brain from inside my skull. did what any sensible hungover tourist would: headed for a tour of the Beamish & Crawford brewery. it turns out the actual brewery is closed to tours while they're renovating to make it more tourist-accessible going forward, but there was a video & in-depth explanation of the brewing process, as well as as many pints of Beamish stout (or Fosters, Miller or Carling, which are brewed on the premisis under license) as you care to drink. caught some great traditional Irish music at a cosy pub called Sin E' - probably the best session I've heard since being here. my first day in Ireland without any rain.
• Weds, 5/10 - took the bus to Midleton, a smaller town roughly 20km east of Cork, for a tour of the Old Midleton Distillery, where various Irish whiskeys (Jameson, Paddy, Powers, Midleton) were distilled from the early 1800's to 1975, when a new modern distillery was built on the adjacent site. The tour was less informative & more commercial than the Beamish tour, but still interesting. Finished On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
  

Overall Highlight
No hands-down winner, but probably the Beamish 'tour'. Quite informative as to how different types of beer are brewed, and now I can better appreciate all the effort that goes into making the stuff I've been pouring down my gullet for the past several days.

Runner-up: cycling & hiking around Killarney National Park. different scenery (lakes & forests rather than countryside & coastal landscapes) but still stunning.

What I Miss

• A Washcloth. Still not sure if they exist at all on this side of the pond, but in the places I've stayed where towels were provided, you don't get one, and I didn't bring one (lugging around a damp cloth in my pack didn't seem like that great of an idea). Rubbing soap all over yourself just doesn't leave you feeling quite as clean...

Photos

Next Stop: Kinsale on the south coast, then Kilkenny for a few days and on to Dublin.

5/5/06 - The Grass Is Always Greener...

Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Now I know why green is the national color of Ireland. "Sure," you might think, "it rains there all the time, of course it's green." But you wouldn't nearly be doing it justice, because this isn't just green; it's super ubergreen. It's emeralds and antifreeze and pondscum and Midori and old-school Philadelphia Eagles jerseys all tossed into a blender and then injected with a heavy dose of steroids. Seriously. If you wanted your lawn to be this color, you'd have to fertilize it with nuclear waste, and I'm still not even convinced you'd get the same result. Although the higher mountains are more brown, at lower altitudes there are a million different shades of green, interrupted only occasionally by roads and houses and the brilliant yellow flowers of gorse bushes, and the colors change subtly whenever the light changes. That's pretty often, because the weather also changes pretty damn quickly. Everything you might have heard about the Irish skies are true -- it rains a lot, and often heavily, but just when you think it's never going to end, it dries up. I've actually been pretty lucky, only having been caught outside in one steady rain, walking to the bus station in Limerick. Even then, the sun was shining 30 minutes later (once I was on the bus, of course...)

Daily Summary:

• Mon, 5/1 - arrived Shannon Airport, walked around Limerick. lucky enough to be in town on the right day to witness the one and only Irish National Freestyle Kayaking championships, being held on some 'rapids' on the River Shannon. met some ATA flight attendants on a layover in Shannon over a few pints. not exactly 'meeting the locals', but a good time & ended up being a late night despite the jet lag.
• Tues, 5/2 - Hunt Museum in Limerick (interesting collection of antiquities, including a horse statue by Da Vinci and supposedly one of the 30 silver coins given to Judas as payment for his betrayal of Christ). bus to Tralee, a small, very pretty city at the foot of the Dingle peninsula.
• Weds, 5/3 - bus to Dingle, the main town on the Dingle peninsula. rented a bike, rode from Dingle up to the Connor Pass (the highest mountain pass in Ireland, although at 456 meters it's not exactly in the stratosphere).
• Thurs, 5/4 - cycled around the western edge of the Dingle peninsula, through Ballyferriter, Dunquin, around Slea Head, & through Ventry. granted, I'm not used to being on a bike for extended periods of time (or multiple days in a row), but I'm in decent shape, and after that ride I could barely walk. either Lance Armstrong is in fact doping, or he's one hell of an athlete, and anybody who says differently hasn't ridden a bike up & down hills for more than a mile or two... had a few pints & heard some traditional irish music in some Dingle pubs.

Overall Highlight

This is going to sound a little lame, but honestly, it was the bus ride from Limerick to Tralee through rural Co. Limerick and northern Co. Kerry. I've already waxed poetic on the beauty of the countryside here, but this was one of the reasons I came to Ireland, and the bus out of Limerick through the farm country was my first taste of this magical landscape (it's surprisingly easy to picture leprechauns scurrying around the fields...)

Runner-up: cycling around Dingle.

Random Observations:

• The Irish are NOT the English, and don't make the mistake of confusing the two... I had actually been guilty of this serious offense once before while living in Dusseldorf - while talking to a guy from Belfast I knew, I made the mistake of referring to 'my other English friends' even though I knew he was (Northern) Irish. He promptly tore me a new asshole. Although in general the Irish are a very friendly people, there's definitely a certain animosity towards the English here (in many ways justified, given the long Irish history of oppression by their neighbors to the east). While out and about in Limerick, I was talking to a young student & Carrot-Top look-alike named Tommy, who had been in California for most of last summer. While there, he went to a Dodgers game, and I compared baseball to cricket in terms of the complexity of the rules (although it's been explained to me multiple times, I still haven't got a clue when it comes to scoring in cricket). Oops, bad move...to paraphrase Tommy: "F*ck cricket, we f*cking hate that f*cking English game." Unfortunately the heavy brogue doesn't come across properly, but you get the gist.

Blog Issues: I think everyone should now be able to post comments (the feature was turned off before). Still getting the hang of the new digital camera, but I'll try to post a few pictures going forward as well.

Photos

Next Stop: more of the southwest (Killarney, the Beara Peninsula, Cork City)